Founded at the world-famous Royal Observatory at Greenwich in 1877 by William Christie, then Chief Assistant and later to become Astronomer Royal, The Observatory Magazine has a special place in the affections of astronomers, both professional and amateur. It not only carries scientific notes and papers, but reports the meetings of the prestigious Royal Astronomical Society and has an active correspondence section; it is also renowned for its authoritative book reviews covering virtually every significant work published in astronomy. This unique format led Professor Sir William McCrea, FRS, to describe it as "The most human of all professional scientific journals".

The Observatory Magazine is an independent journal, owned and managed by its Editors (although the views expressed in published contributions are not necessarily shared by them). The Editors are therefore free to accept, at their discretion, material of general interest to astronomers which might be difficult to accommodate within the more restricted remit of most other journals.